Election 2014: Ex-Sensata worker blasts Bruce Rauner in Rockford

ROCKFORD — A Freeport man who had his job outsourced in 2012 led a protest Wednesday against Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner.

Outside the former Essex Wire Plant, 2816 N. Main St., Tom Gaulrapp described Rauner as a billionaire CEO who accumulated his wealth in part by outsourcing American jobs to take advantage of low-paying foreign labor.

“We need to point out what a little liar Rauner is” about Illinois not being able to attract and retain jobs for the middle class, he said. “There were jobs in Illinois, but you moved them.”

Gaulrapp was a 33-year employee of Sensata Technologies, a Freeport manufacturer of sensors and controls for automakers. He was one of 170 people who lost their jobs in 2012 when the work was moved to China.

Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, a company founded and run, until 1999, by Mitt Romney, and the closing was highlighted in the 2012 presidential campaign.

Rauner and Romney were described as “two peas in a pod.”

According to bloomberg.com Rauner worked with Romney in the late 1970s at Boston consulting firm Bain & Co.

“Bruce Rauner destroyed middle-class jobs like mine in order to make a profit,” Gaulrapp said. “He’s an outsourcer. ... He’s Mitt Romney 2.0.”

Jay Ferraro, president of Local AFSCME Council 31 Retirees, was one of 16 people who joined Gaulrapp in the public demonstration against Rauner.

“We need a governor that is working to increase middle-class jobs in America, not one who ships them overseas,” he said. “If Rockford’s middle class is going to make a comeback, then we can’t allow Bruce Rauner to run our state.”

Gaulrapp and Ferraro made their comments a day after Rauner, chairman of R8 Capital Partners and a former chairman of the Chicago-based private-equity firm GTCR, made six campaign stops in Boone and Winnebago counties.

Rauner, who stumped Wednesday at Seaga Manufacturing in Freeport, is hoping to unseat Gov. Pat Quinn in November.